◼ More than 2,000 people are unaccounted for after radical Islamist sect Boko Haram torched more than 10 towns and villages in Nigeria, a local lawmaker told NBC News.
Ahmed Zanna, a senator for Borno state where the attack happened, said the militants razed the town of Baga as well as "10-to-20" other communities in the country's rural northeast over the past five days. "These towns are just gone, burned down," he told NBC News via telephone. "The whole area is covered in bodies."
...Nigeria will hold general elections on February 14, a ballot many expect Boko Haram will attempt to disrupt. The group, whose name roughly translates to "Western education is sinful," has slaughtered and kidnapped thousands and wants to establish a state in northern Nigeria based on strict Islamic law.
Baga, Nigeria is now virtually non-existent. It has been burnt down by the Islamic terrorists known as Boko Haram. http://t.co/JQzclkKMpe
— Lag O'Morph (@lagomorph13) January 9, 2015http://t.co/bfo7RcYAa0 Nigeria: 2,000 missing and bodies littering streets as Muslims raid town
— Robert Spencer (@jihadwatchRS) January 9, 2015
